A GOOD PRODUCT IS NOT BEING BOUGHT. WHAT TO DO — CLOSE IT DOWN?

Not always.

There is a dangerous logic:
🔴no sales
🔴product is bad
🔴we close the project

But the market may be saying something completely different:

🟢 you are selling to the wrong customer;
🟢 you are solving the wrong problem;
🟢 you are explaining the value incorrectly;
🟢 you chose the wrong channel;
🟢 or you simply decided to scale too early.

And here is where the pivot comes in.

Eric Ries in The Lean Startup describes a pivot as a structured change in strategy to test a new fundamental hypothesis.


To put it simply:

a pivot is not "we messed up."

It is "we got data and understood where to turn."


Moreover, for a physical product this is especially important.

⌨️ In IT, a failed hypothesis can end with a new version of the app.

🏭 In manufacturing, it can be a warehouse of products, purchased raw materials, packaging, equipment, and a very sad Excel with the project's economics...

Therefore, it is advisable to make a good pivot before scaling.

A great example is Dyson 💨.

James Dyson faced the fact that ordinary vacuum cleaners lose power as the bag fills. In the end, he went through 5,127 prototypes before arriving at his famous bagless cyclone solution.

The question changed from:
❌ "How to improve an ordinary vacuum cleaner?"
to:
✅ "How to get rid of the cause of power loss altogether?"

And Tefal🍳 shows another important principle.

The buyer, by and large, does not need an "innovative coating technology."

What he needs is for food not to burn, and for the pan not to have to be washed afterward like the aftermath of an industrial accident.

That is, it is not the technology that is sold.
What is sold is the result for the person.

And here is the main takeaway.

If the product is not taking off, before burying it, I would check five things:

1️⃣ Customer
2️⃣ Problem
3️⃣ Value
4️⃣ Use case
5️⃣ Launch model.

Perhaps you won't have to change the product itself at all.

Sometimes it is enough to change the hypothesis about whom, why, and what value you are actually selling.

That is why I like the simple question from the JTBD logic:

"Our customer is not buying ________, but the opportunity to ________."

Try to plug your product in there.

If it is difficult to formulate the second part of the sentence, then perhaps your next pivot is hidden somewhere here💡

💬 And what is more dangerous: abandoning the initial hypothesis in time or spending too long proving to the market that it is wrong?

#methodology